It’s hard to believe it’s already been over a month since our Kickstarterwrapped. Hopefully you claimed your shirt at the time. If you haven’t, it’s not too late. You can still pre-order Blank in all sizes and colors on Cotton Bureau.

Now, let’s get to the good stuff.

Making t-shirts for the first time is a little bit like, well, like doing anything for the first time. You’re excited and nervous and you struggle right up until you think you’ve got it all figured out only to realize there’s still so much more to learn. No amount of wearing t-shirts or selling t-shirts or even comparing and contrasting t-shirts from dozens of your favorite brands and manufacturers quite prepares you for making your own. We read and watched and talked and listened for months, looking for just the right partner to take us from people who liked t-shirts to people who know them, inside and out. Thankfully, we found some really great teachers.

The fabric has been milled, the sewing is about to begin. It hasn’t been easy, but we’ve come a long way in the last year, and our friends in LA are a big reason why. We can’t wait to see years of hard work rewarded when you finally get your shirts in the mail. In the meantime, it’s our pleasure to introduce you to some of the men and women who have been holding our hands along the way

Meet Celseo. Celseo inspects, rests, and cuts the fabric into just the right shapes and sizes before sending it off to be assembled into the final product.

Meet Anna Maria. Anna Maria is a sewing technician. Every Blank tee is sewn by Anna Maria or one of the other talented men and women at the shop.

Meet Victor. Victor is our production manager. Creating and revising patterns, cutting and sewing thousands of shirts, and making sure they look, feel, and fit just right is a team effort. Victor keeps things running smoothly.

Meet Olga. Olga is our finishing manager. Her team meticulously checks our garments for errors. From there they trim, iron, fold and box them up for us.

Meet Jon. Jon is our day-to-day contact for every status update and tiny, nitpicky question. Jon’s been around since the very beginning. We couldn’t have done this without him.

Finally, meet Moe. Moe was the first person we spoke with at the factory back when we were just getting started. He’s the founder and owner, and we’ve grown quite fond of him. It’s unusual these days for t-shirts to be manufactured in the U.S., but Moe’s been doing it for decades and won’t have it any other way. We’re extremely thankful to have found him. Nobody outside of Cotton Bureau cares more about the mission and success of Blank than Moe. When you get yours in the mail, we hope you’ll feel the same way we do.

In addition to Moe, Jon, Olga, Victor, Anna Maria, and Celseo, there are dozens of other people who are just as committed to making great shirts. What we’ve learned over the last year about creels and dye lots and combing and handfeel could fill a book. Thankfully, it’s a book our friends at the factory already know cover to cover and one that you’ll never need to read. Moe, Jon, and the team are totally invested in making the best possible shirts for us, and it shows.

That’s it for now. We’ll have more photos to share, more updates on the ins and outs of manufacturing and the intricacies of what it takes to be in the t-shirt business in 2017 soon. You should follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, of course. Hope you enjoyed this quick factory tour!

We need models. Okay, what we really mean is that we need people… like the kind who wear our tees, or better yet, the kind who are excited about our new Blank tees. Are you a human between sizes XS and 5X and not too shy in front of a camera? If so, we want to hear from you. That’s parents, students, business owners, activists, athletes, adventurers, homebodies, grandmas, entire product teams, and, well, you get the picture.

We’re gearing up for our next #BlankbyCB photoshoot, and we’re looking for CB fans of every shape, size, and ethnicity. The only catch is that you have to be located in (or willing to travel to) Pittsburgh. What’s in it for you? Well that’d be the satisfaction of showing everyone that Blank fits people. Lots of people. Okay, we’ll give you a couple Blank tees to keep for yourself and some killer snacks too. Sound like a plan? Great. Then email us at blank@cottonbureau.com with your contact info and shirt size, and we’ll be in touch.

Oh, and even if you’re not in Pittsburgh right now, but might visit some day, email us! Michelle is keeping a list, and she’d love to put you on it. 📝

We’ll just cut to the chase here. We are a few thousand dollars away from reaching our 100% cotton olive stretch goal at $96k. We have 3 hours left to do it. If we reach it, we’ll cut the $12k minimum for our next stretch goal.

That’s right, you’re getting a extra color for only $4k!

And this time we’re going with the CB office favorite, 100% cotton natural.

Time waits for no Kickstarter, and since Blank tees won’t be available to non-backers for a bit, we wanna make sure everyone gets in before it’s too late. Unlocking a fifth stretch color and getting us to $100k sounds so much better than $96k, right?!

So now that you’ve wasted a minute of Kickstarter time reading this update, it’s time to get out there and tell everyone. See you at $100k!